The House Judiciary Committee approved the Michael Davis, Jr. and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement (Davis-Oliver) Act this week, marking the first significant step taken by the 115th Congress to strengthen immigration enforcement. As I told you last week, the Davis-Oliver Act does not contain our top enforcement priority — mandatory E-Verify for all employers — but it does address three provisions listed on our ‘10 Steps to Fix the Broken Immigration Enforcement System‘:

Authorizes states and local jurisdictions to:

pass and enforce immigration laws that are consistent with federal law, and

enter into agreements with the federal government to assist in the enforcement of immigration law and create a federal grant program to fund those efforts.

Expands the list of deportable offenses and expands expedited removal.

We only provided a few action opportunities for the Davis-Oliver Act because we were confident that the Committee would approve the legislation since they’ve approved it in each of the last two Congresses. But with the bill cleared through the Committee, we’ll be asking for your help in pressuring House Leadership to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

In the meantime, Congress is in recess until June 5, so many Members will be attending Memorial Day events over the weekend and hosting Town Hall meetings next week. Be on the lookout for alerts from Van that will include details for events in your area and talking points for the Davis-Oliver Act.

BARLETTA INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE HEALTH CARE VERIFICATION

Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) has introduced the Verify First Act, H.R. 2581, that would strengthen the verification system to prevent illegal aliens from receiving tax credits under the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA).

As we’ve previously told you, the AHCA includes the same, failed verification system used by the Affordable Care Act that allowed more than $700 million of taxpayer money to be given to ineligible aliens. Rep. Barletta’s bill would require the Social Security Administration or the Department of Homeland Security to verify that every applicant for a credit is a citizen or eligible alien before the Treasury Department could actually issue the tax credit.

H.R. 2581 passed through the House Ways & Means Committee this week and will next head to the Energy and Commerce Committee for its consideration.